All the Little Things
by Musicture
Summary: "Step aside, little Gaz," Zim said darkly. "You toy with matters above your own understanding."
1. The Nightmare Begins

Zim glowered down at Dib triumphantly while perched upon his spider legs. Bright red blood ran down the side of the human's head. It dripped down from his nose and oozed from his various wounds. Zim himself was also bleeding, but sustained less injury than the human. Pink, almost translucent blood trickled from what used to be one of his antennae, before it had been sliced off. The pink substance stained Zim's outfit.

"You'll... never get away with this Zim," Dib gasped. He squinted at Zim through cracked glasses.

Zim laughed. "Oh! But I already _have_, Dib. And, as soon as I rid myself of you, I can finally conquer this miserable ball of dirt!"

"No!" Dib yelled. "I won't let you!"

The Irken laughed once more. "You won't be able to stop me if you're _dead_!" He poised one of his PAK legs in a striking position. "Goodbye, _Dib_!" The PAK leg came down and then...

Silence filled the room. The PAK leg was embedded in the human's chest. Zim retracted the leg from Dib's unmoving torso and inspected it. Red blood coated the tip, some of it collecting together then dripping off. Disgusting, inferior human blood. He wiped it with his shirt, getting some of it off, but mostly smearing it.

Zim grimaced. He'd have to clean it thoroughly later. The short Irken retracted his PAK legs, setting himself back down. He looked down at the human. Dib lay on his back. Blood soaked his shirt, discoloring it to a vivid shade of violet.

The Dib had put up a good fight, but not good enough, evidently.

The so-called "invader" glanced around at the living room. Most of the room had been wrecked- the television flipped over, couch cushions strewn, the little table over-turned... Then he saw GiR- or what remained of him. The robot had been dismantled and destroyed. Nothing remained except for a few spare wires and some scrap metal.

Of course, Zim felt no sorrow or remorse. It _was _just a robot, and after all, invaders were above such emotions. Zim swallowed hard. He found no joy or triumph, as he had thought he would. Instead, he felt tired. Tired and empty.

"Computer," Zim said roughly. "Clean this mess up, and dispose of the body somewhere no one will find it. I don't need any _drama _from any _Earth _authorities."

The computer said nothing in return. Instead, several large robotic arms swept down from the ceiling and began tidying up the room.

"GiR! I'm heading down to the lab. Don't mess with anyth-" Zim paused. "Oh. Right."

The invader took one least glance around at the room, then exited through the kitchen doorway. He walked to the toilet, stepped inside, then pulled the flushing lever. He began to swirl slowly, descending into the giant metal tube that led to his underground base.

Lower and lower it took the Irken, until at last it stopped. Zim stepped off the medium sized platform, then stopped to watch it go ascend back up the chute silently.

Once the metal disk was out of sight, Zim spun on his heel and began to march down the hot-pink colored hallway. For a moment, Zim distracted himself from his exhaustion by wondering why almost everything Irken was pink. The ships, the walls, their uniforms... Hm.

Zim stopped in front of a familiar portion of the wall. It might have looked like just another section of the wall, to any outsider (except for the Dib, but the Dib had studied his base thoroughly, hence why he knew so much), but in truth, it was a secret door that hid a passage way.

Zim pulled off his glove, then stretched out his arm and placed his gloved hand flat on a small square section of the wall. A green light flashed, then the square beeped three times. Zim withdrew his hand, pulling his glove back one, as the sector of the wall began to slide to the side.

Zim started down the previously hidden hall, the wall sliding closed behind him. To a human, it would be hard to see down the hall, because of its dimness, but for a trained invader, it was as bright as daylight. Not to mention, the optical implants each invader received probably helped as well.

He walked for a few minutes, then took a right at the end of the hallway. The Irken went forward a few paces, then stopped at another section of the wall. He repeated the same procedures as before, and, like the other wall, this one began to slide open as well.

The reason for these security restricted sectors of Zim's base was he had not wanted to chance GiR or an intruder catching him off guard while charging, or while performing and other private or hygienic acts.

The room was familiar to him. Of course, _all _the rooms in his base were familiar to him, but this one he particularly knew well, because it was where he spent a lot of his time.

As the wall slid closed, Zim clambered on top of a hot pink sitting area. It looked almost like a hook suspending from the ceiling, except it had individual cushions lining the top, and it was the comfiest thing Zim had. In front of the "hook" were numerous monitoring screens, which Zim really only used for intercepting Earthly television signals.

Zim positioned himself on the cushions as comfortably as he could, then reached over to the side and pulled out a metal tube that was larger than his arm. He reached around and connected it to his PAK, then sighed as he slumped downwards.

He reached for the remote to the monitors, then began flipping through channels. After discovering that there were, unsurprisingly, no good shows to watch, he flipped to a random channel and left it there.

Before he knew it, he had dozed off, oblivious to anything else.

* * *

"Gaz, do you know where your brother is?" Professor Membrane asked his purple-haired daughter as he strode into the living room.

Gaz sat on the couch, indulged in her game. "No," she said in her usual spiteful demeanor.

"Ah well," the Professor said. "He'll turn up sooner or later." With that, he spun on his heel and walked off in the direction he had come from.

Gaz played her game late into the night. Unlike some other kids, she could function with little amount of sleep, so she was allowed to stay up later than most.

Around 3 A.M. or so, she looked up at the clock and saw it was getting late. She switched off the game and then started for the stairs.

The girl stopped when she realized that she hadn't seen her brother since he had left to go mess with Zim. Sure, sometimes he would be gone for a while, but never before had he been gone for this long. Even he knew well enough to be home by at most midnight.

Gaz shrugged it off. She would confront Zim tomorrow about it. Dib had probably gotten stuck in one of Zim's stupid traps. Without another though about the matter, Gaz walked up the staircase and into her room, where she changed into her pajamas, climbed into her bed, and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

The next day at Skool, no one really seemed to notice Dib's absence. That, or no one cared. All seemed to be going well for Zim. Until lunch, that is. Zim had gotten his disgusting Skool lunch as usual, and when he turned to go to his normal lunch seat, there was Gaz, a bit too close for comfort.

The alien gave an involuntary yelp of surprise, jumping backwards and almost dropping his tray. "Where's Dib?" Gaz asked, getting straight to the point.

Zim took a moment to recompose himself, before saying, "I have no idea what you are talking about, Gaz-thing."

"Where's. Dib." Gaz said again, this time more assertively.

"Oh, I assure you I have had nothing to to with his de... disappearance." Zim blinked slowly at her.

Gaz raised an eyebrow. There was definitely something suspicious going on, but she wasn't about to make a scene over it. "Whatever." She turned around and walked to where her lunch was waiting for her. Honestly, it was nice not to have to listen to Dib's ongoing ramblings about the paranormal, or whatever it was he talked about.

* * *

When Gaz got home, she automatically deposited her things onto the coffee table, then plopped down onto the sofa with a book. True, she would rather game than read most of the time, but sometimes she just needed a break.

The purple-haired girl glanced in the direction of the kitchen. She could just barely see past the door frame, and saw part of the giant stack of dishes piled high in the sink. Gaz clenched her fists and dropped her book on the couch. It didn't matter whether or not Dib was missing. There was _no way _she was going to do his chores for him.

She stood up from the soda, then made her way to the door, stomping angrily. Dib should have known better than to go missing. When she found him, she would make him _hurt_.

Gaz walked out the door, then began to make her way to Zim's house. That green idiot's "base" would probably be the ideal place for finding Dib.

On her way to the alien's house, she began wondering what Zim might have done to Dib. Maybe he had turned him inside out. Or maybe Zim had him locked away in a test tube. Or maybe Zim had even killed Dib.

Gaz shook her head. Sure, Zim was stupid, but she thought he would have more common sense than _that_. Authorities would be looking for Dib. Her father would probably start a wide search for his son, and worst of all, Zim would have Gaz's rage to deal with.

Then again, her dad had never really cared much for Dib. Usually he really never spoke to Dib unless it was about something important. He paid more attention to Gaz than he did Dib. Authorities would probably never even be notified of his disappearance, and if they were, they probably wouldn't care much either.

It was kind of sad really, that the one who saved the Earth the most, and maybe was even one of the most vital keys to Earth's survival, was really never noticed or given much thought.

Gaz emerged from her thoughts when she saw the familiar green house, with the creepy lawn gnomes and various "I LOVE EARTH" signs stuck in the lawn. To her, Zim seemed to be trying a bit too hard to fit in.

She simply walked up the pathway. Even though they were just security bots, the lawn gnomes knew better than to mess with her. The girl was almost to the door, when she saw something sticking up by the side of Zim's house.

On normal days, she would have ignored it, or probably not even have noticed it, but today, she decided to check it out. Gaz cut across the grass to get a better look. There was something black sticking out from a lump in the ground. When she reached it, she crouched down to look at it. She brushed her hand across the black thing, half-expecting something to jump out at her.

Instead, it just bent forward, then snapped back into place. The texture of it was soft and smooth, and a little sticky, as if there were gel on it. The girl opened her eyes a bit, having a dreadful suspicion of what it might be.

She slowly began pushing dirt away from beneath the black thing. She kept scraping the dirt until a disgusting odor reached her nose. Gaz jerked away, covering her nose with her sleeve. She then quickly took her shirt collar and adjusted it to where it covered half her face, so she had her hands free and the odor would not reek as bad.

The girl bent over and began dusting the dirt away some more. About a minute later, her hand felt something squishy and soft. She took her hands and placed them on the sides of the small hole she had just dug, giving herself a rest from digging as she silently dreaded what it was.

"No," she told herself. "Zim's just being stupid."

She stared at the small indention in the Earth, then slowly took her hands and lowered them back down into the hole and started sweeping away more dirt. She uncovered more fleshy matter, just enough that she saw the side of a glasses frame.

Gaz retracted her hands quickly. She looked away, suddenly feeling like she was going to be sick. The girl stood up, then began to walk away.

Most believed that Gaz was strong, and she was, but the cruel hands of fate were just strong enough to squeeze a small drop of grief from her dry, pruned heart.

She was not about to cry. She had never cried in her eleven years of living, and she was not about to start now. But she did not feel well. Her mind kept thinking back to the squishy, fleshy, rotting flesh of her deceased brother's corpse. Every time it did, she would grasp around for another subject to think about.

When Gaz got home, she sat down on the sofa, trying to sort out her thoughts. Dib was d... gone. He was gone and he would not be coming back, unless their father decided to bring him back as a zombie or something, which was highly unlikely to happen. This meant that now Gaz would be doing all of the chores, and that if she ever needed to go somewhere late at night, her father would not allow it, due to no one being able to take her.

The violet-haired girl clenched her fists, angry at her brother, then unclenched them, not quite sure how to feel.

On the bright side, Dib wouldn't ever annoy her again. Then again, sometimes Gaz didn't mind the company of her sibling, since he was really the only one who ever approached her.

Gaz stood, then made the decision of going to her father's underground lab. She walked through the kitchen, and then out through the garage door. The garage had a secret underground passage way that led to her father's lab. She found the passage way, and then made her way to the laboratory.

When she came in, Professor Membrane was at the center counter, performing tests on what appeared to be ladybugs. Gaz couldn't be too sure what exactly what they were, though, seeing as sometimes the Professor experimented on things that weren't even known (or supposed) to exist.

"Dad."

Membrane turned, then looked down and saw his child. "Hello, daughter of mine!" He bent down and picked up Gaz by the scruff, then rested her on his shoulder. "What seems to be the trouble?"

"Dib's dead."

The Professor paused for a moment, then laughed. "You're my funny child!" He then took her and placed her back on the ground.

"No, he's really-"

"Run along, now. I've got SCIENCE to do!" the Professor said, emphasizing the word "science".

"Dad-"

"Ah-but-but! Go play with your brother!"

Gaz gritted her teeth, but didn't argue any further. She turned around and headed back to the living room.

* * *

Zim narrowed his eyes at the monitors. That was suspicious.

The Dib-sister had strolled down his walkway willy-nilly, looked at something (that his cameras were not able to get a clear view of), and then had just left. Zim puzzled over this for the next few minutes, until a sudden thought struck Zim:What if she had found the Dib's body?

The Irken immediately dismissed the though. If she had, she'd be a bag of hopelessness and despair, while sobbing like any normal pitiful human would... right? Zim began to panic. What if she _had_ seen it, and she was at her house right now, plotting a horrible revenge?

Zim started to fret. If she had discovered the Dib-human's corpse, would she have not confronted him about it? The invader's mind was filled with panic-inducing thoughts.

"Computer! Take me to where you hid the Dib's body!" Zim commanded.

"It's by the side of the house."

"I said _take me_!"

"Do it yourself."

Zim growled, frustrated. He'd have to remember to ask his Tallest for a new AI system.

The green alien raced from his private quarters and through the halls. He rode the metal disk up to the ground level of his base, then rushed outside. Zim froze right outside his door, making eye contact with one of his neighbors who decided to be standing right outside of his fence.

It was the lady with the weird nub hands and tiny fingers. She happened to be holding a leash, which led behind the fence towards something that Zim didn't care about.

"Eh... This is my... Halloweenie costume," Zim said slowly, making air quotes around "Halloweenie".

The lady nodded as if she understood, still standing in the same spot.

Zim slowly backed up into his base and shut the door, unnerved by the odd stare of the neighbor lady. He crept to one of the windows and peeked out the blinds. The lady was out there, still staring at the same exact spot he had been in. Zim shuddered, growling slightly. How he hated this awful planet. The sooner he conquered this miserable planet, the better.

The invader retreated to the wooded drawer by the wall, in which he kept his disguise. He pulled out his wig and contacts, then put them on. He personally hated his disguise, mainly because of the fact that it was just plain uncomfortable. The wig scratched at his scalp and dampened his hearing. The contact lenses itched his eyes, and whenever he went to take them out, there would be a slimy residue from his own eyes, which he would always have to wash off the lenses.

Zim thought of how Tak's disguise must have been more comfortable. All it was was a hologram. Tak had it easy, or so Zim thought. He quietly also thought that it _was_ a little better than his own disguise, but not by much.

The Irken shook his head, clearing the unrelated thoughts, then slowly made his way back to the window. This time, when he peered out, the lady was gone, along with whatever had been on her leash.

_About time_, Zim thought to himself.

He opened the door, then jumped out into the lawn, completely disregarding the open door. The alien walked to the side of the house, then immediately spotted the small hole. Right then, Zim began to panic.

He imagined the Gaz alerting the highest Earth authorities, then those same authorities coming and finding the Dib's body, and eventually discovering Zim's extraterrestrial origin. It would become even worse then. Then, the experiments would start, along with the tests and dissection, and then the result would be the death of himself, the greatest Irken to ever live, ZIM. The Tallest- no, the ARMADA- would be devastated by the loss of their greatest invader and soldier. The Armada would then surely rain down doom and destruction upon all of Earth in a fiery revenge, leaving the Earth in a smokey ruins, and the human race would be no more.

Zim reveled in this thought, cherishing the idea. He then decided he would rather be alive to see this destruction, though. He liked himself too much, so he would rather not die. Besides, he had a mission to fulfill.

Zim then returned his attention to the task at hand. Zim had no doubt that the Dib-sister had seen the Dib's corpse- she had even dug some of it up (much to Zim's dismay). He had no idea what the Gaz-pig's reaction would be, though he could make a fairly good guess.

The green alien decided to worry about the Dib-sister later. His main focus right now would be to relocate the body, this time to an area no one would find it. If he left it here, the stench would become stronger, and would attract unwanted attention.

He decided that it would be best if he took the Dib and dealt with him himself, because he obviously could not trust the computer to do this job.

Zim shuddered at the thought of his next task. He would be spending more time with the Dib's unpleasant, rotting corpse than he cared to.

* * *

A black figure darted through the near empty streets, shielded by the thick darkness that the night offered. The figure carried something slung over its shoulder, a something that was almost as large as the figure itself.

Steering clear of the prying eyes of people, the creature made its way to the outskirts of town. Only when there was nothing around to witness its next act but the trees, did the figure pull back its dark hood to reveal its face. Magenta eyes darted around, alert, while a deep frown was seemingly imprinted on the face.

The thing set down the giant bag, then took a shovel and drove it into the hardened Earth. The shovel made a dent, but not enough of a dent. The thing took the shovel and pulled away, then rammed it harder into the Earth than before, creating a quick "skff" sound, and then lifted away a mound of Earth.

The figure kept at this for quite a while, until it had a decent-sized hole in the ground. It then set the shovel down, and picked up the bag. It tossed the bag into the hole, the bag making a muffled thud when it hit the bottom, and sending up a cloud of dirt. The figure went and retrieved the shovel, and then began filling the hole again.

Once the hole was filled and packed, the figure scattered the remaining dirt across the terrain, then threw the shovel away from itself as far as it could. It then pulled up its hood, and slipped away into the night, having completed the perfect crime.

* * *

_**A/N: So I haven't put anything up in forever, sorry about that. I would just like to say that this story was inspired by Jaywings' story "Mirror", which I would highly suggest reading if you haven't already.**_


	2. A Devilish Scheme

It was a great day at Skool so far, which was to say, it was also a boring day. The Dib was gone (of course), so no one bothered Zim, with the exception of Miss Bitters, which was a given.  
It was lunchtime when Zim ran into trouble. He had just come from the lunch line, when the Dib's sister appeared out of nowhere, took him by the neck, and shoved him up against the wall, causing his lunch tray to clatter noisily to the floor.

"I know what you did," she growled.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, little Gaz thing," Zim stated loudly. Then, in a lower voice, he said, "There is nothing you can do about it."

Gaz took him and slammed him against the wall a second time. In a voice only loud enough for him to hear, she said, "You killed Dib."

"I did." There was no emotion in his statement.

Gaz growled again. "You will pay," she threatened. "Maybe not today, or even tomorrow, but I _will_ get my revenge, and you _will not_ come out alive."

"Step aside, little Gaz," Zim said darkly. "You toy with matters above your own understanding."

The two glared at each other silently. The tension between them was strong. Then, after a few moments of silent glaring, Gaz let go of Zim. The alien rubbed his neck where she had been holding him, then picked up the remnants of his lunch and made his way to his seat.

The purple haired child stared after the Irken, then turned and walked back to her own seat. The other children in the cafeteria look back and forth between the two, confused as to what had just happened.

- -  
Zim stood over his planning journal. In this journal were blueprints and plans to conquer Earth; all failed, of course. With a sudden urge to start anew, Zim had ripped out all previous workings, to make room for his much newer and better plan.

In class, they had been studying a horribly destructive called small pox. At first, Zim had dismissed the teachings as irrelevant, but as they advanced in their lesson, he grew intrigued.

The disease had been caused by a virus called "Variola". When inhaled, even if just a particle, a person could become infected. At first, that person would start feeling feverish and nauseous and weak. Then, a rash in the nose and throat would develop, eventually spreading all over the body. Pus-filled pocks would form on the persons body, and the person's skin would blister as if on fire, and fall off.

Unfortunately, this deadly disease became eradicated in 1979, a human known as Janet Parker being the last to die of it in 1978. Although the small pox wasn't around anymore, Zim was pleased to find that Variola samples had been sent to two labs: one in America and one in Russia, though the latter has long since destroyed their samples.

What Zim planned to do was get a hold of a sample. Then, because the deadliest type of Variola, Variola Major, only had a thirty percent death rate, Zim would modify and _enhance_ it, so that not only would it be powerful, it would have a _one hundred percent _death rate.

He calculates that once the finished product was released, the humans would have no idea how to deal with it. Well, at first. That's why it needed to kill as quickly as possible, and spread even faster, to ensure the humans didn't have enough time to figure out how to deal with it.

True, it seemed like a tough plan, and admittedly, a lot could go terribly wrong, but Zim was confident that with enough caution and skill, he could pull it off.  
Zim cackled. He almost wished he _hadn't_ killed the Dib-worm so that the puny human could witness his ingenious plan.

* * *

Zim wasn't at Skool the next day. Same as Dib's disappearance, no one seemed to pay any attention to Zim being gone. Well, no one but Gaz.

Since she had no classes with him, she hadn't known he wasn't there until lunch, where she had been planning to bully him a bit.

As the girl sat down, she wondered where the alien had gone off to. Gaz sneered at no one in particular. He probably had been too afraid to show up.

She immediately dropped the sneer, mentally kicking herself. She was acting like Dib. She was not Dib. Not even close.

Gaz felt her appetite drain away, so she picked up her tray and went to go throw it away.

Zim pressed himself up against the wall, listening for noises. The only sounds audible to him were the creaks and groans of the old disease control center. He blinked and felt his eye lids protest against opening.

It was night time. The flight to Georgia had taken a while, and had worn him out, but he was not about to let himself become tired on an important mission such as this.

The Irken invader began to dart down the dim hall soundlessly. Most Irken were very light weight and fleet-footed, which made it easy to sneak around. Unless, of course, the things you were trying to sneak around had excellent hearing.

Zim sneered. Humans did not have good hearing. Inferior dirt monkeys.

He stopped to look at his map of the control center. According to the map, the virus storage compartments would be up ahead. The alien dashed forward, and after a few minutes of running, came upon a large rusty door. A sign was plastered on it, but was too faded to properly read.

Zim pushed open the door. It made a sharp squeak that caused him to cringe. He looked behind him to make sure no humans had heard and were rushing to see what it was. Satisfied no one was rushing up behind him, Zim grabbed a random object out of his PAK and lodged it between the door and its frame, then slipped inside.

It was dark, even with his optical implants. Zim squinted his eyes as they barely adjusted to the darkness. He could only imagine how dark it must be for humans. The invader rummaged through his PAK for the flashlight he had stowed away earlier. He pulled it out and flicked it on, then flashed it around. He was in a small corridor that led to another door a little ways down.

Zim proceeded with caution. He walked slowly, staying alert in case he triggered any alarms. As he approached the door, the Irken found that he had not set off any alarms. He gently reached for the door handle and turned it, only to find it locked.

The Irken growled, silently cursing humans and their stupid need for locked things. He dug his finger into the lock and started to pick it. He heard a small satisfactory click, and pulled his finger out, then opened the door.

He stepped into the room, and immediately noticed how chilly it was. Zim grimaced as he flashed his light around the cold room. Ice and boxes were stacked up against the surrounding walls. The Invader walked up to a smaller pile and opened one of the boxes. Inside of it were many small vials. He picked one up and shined his light on it. The label on it read "Variola".

His squeedilyspooch quivered, almost like a human's heart would race with excitement. Zim almost dropped the flashlight right then and there and raced out, but stopped himself. If he was to do this correctly, he needed to do it cautiously and precisely.

Zim stashed the vial in one of the safety compartments in his PAK, as to ensure it didn't accidentally open or break. If it did, he would surely be doomed to a horrible fate.

He closed the box back up and exited the room. Zim made sure to lock the door again. After he locked the door, the Irken made his way down the dark hall, and slipped back through the space between the door and its frame. The alien picked up the object holding the door back and stashed it in his PAK, then darted down the hallway, back the way he had come.

* * *

Zim climbed out of his Voot Cruiser, and jumped down to the floor. The long flight back to his base had made him even more tired than he had been. The only positive things about the trip had been him getting the Variola sample successfully, and GiR not being there to irritate him and botch things up.

The Irken slowly made his way to the ground level sector of his base, willing himself not to curl up on the stairway and fall asleep. Zim skipped the last step, and walked through the living room and kitchen. He climbed into the toilet and pulled the lever.

The platform inside slowly swirled as it began to descend. An eternity seemed to pass before the disk quietly slowed to a stop. Zim hopped off and began to sluggishly walk down the pink hallway. He took a left and then a right, then stopped at a section of the wall.

He slipped his glove off and held his hand up to a scanner, which beeped three times before the wall slid to the side, revealing a dim hallway, which opened up into a fairly wide laboratory.

Zim walked over to a freezer on the wall and opened it, then stored the vial inside. Finally, too tired to make it to a more comfortable place, Zim seated himself in one of his chairs and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

A lone escape pod drifted through the emptiness of space. An Irken female sat inside, just barely alive. She was scrawny from lack of eating, and her PAK's batter life was on it's final stand. If she didn't acquire help soon, she would die there.

The Irken's skin was pale from little exposure to light. Her uniform was a faded purple, the cloth worn from when she used to scurry around inside the small space in a panic.

She tapped the screen on the center console. True, the pod had no maneuvering abilities, but it had a function for calling others, if they were in range. The Irken dialed the extension code for the Armada's main ship- The Massive.

Calling the Massive was her last hope. If the Armada wasn't in range, she would be using the last of the pod's battery on a futile request for help. It was a long shot, but it was the last resort.

The Irken sat in anxious anticipation as the pod sent out the signal. It took a few minutes, but soon enough, the Tallest's faces appeared on the screen.

Relief washed over the female Irken. "My Tallest," she rasped. She hadn't used her voice in quite a while.

"I am requesting... help. I am currently isolated in an escape pod."

The purple eyed Tallest skeptically stared at her. "What are your coordinates, soldier?" the red eyed Tallest inquired.

"Em.. Two hundred degrees latitude, nine hundred degrees longitude, fifty degrees depthtitude," the female answered.

Both Tallest nodded. "Someone is on their way. What did you say your name was again?"

"Tak, my Tallest."

* * *

**_Author's Note: Gah, sorry for not updating the story for so long. I've been busy and tired bluh bluh. Also, please inform me if any of the small pox/coordinates are incorrect? Blah. Also, sorry for the short chapter, I'll work on making the other chapter a bit more lengthy!_**


	3. On Your Way

"So let me get this straight," Tallest Red said. "You're going to 'modify' and then release an epidemic on... whatever lives there?"

Zim nodded vigourously. "Yes, my Tallest." He clasped his hands together. "The humans won't know what hit them."

The purple Tallest tilted his head. "That sounds stupid."

"Oh, I assure you, my Tallest," the invader replied. "My _amazing _plan will work."

The Tallest glanced at each other before looking back to Zim. "Okay, Zim," Tallest Red said, touching his fingers together. "Carry out this... _plan... _of yours, and report back to us with progress."

The Invader saluted excitedly. "Yes my Tallest!" His image disappeared off the screen a moment later.

Tallest Red then pressed a button, and spoke into a microphone. "Call Janitor Drone Tak to us," he stated.

A flurry of "Yes, my Tallest!"s rang from the receiver. Tallest Purple watched his partner, silently anticipating what he was planning.

The short purple-eyed Irken stood in front of the Tallest, looking up and awaiting her assignment.

"_Invader _Tak," Tallest Purple addressed her.

"Yes, my Tallest."

"We are sending you on a mission to planet Earth," Tallest Red told her.

Tak flinched, biting her tongue as to not lash out. Though she despised the thought of going back to that _wretched _planet, and seeing _him_, she was not foolish enough to argue with the Tallest. Their word was law.

"You are going to take over Zim's mission," Tallest Purple explained.

"And if you can kill him while you're at it, all the better," Tallest Red added. "Then you're going to conquer the planet and wait for the Armada to arrive."

"Any questions?"

"No sirs," Tak answered.

"Good," Tallest Red said. "You can leave as soon as you're ready."

Tak saluted, then turned on heel and marched off, already planning how she would complete her mission.

* * *

Zim growled in frustration. Human diseases were much more complicated that he had originally thought. The formula existed. He knew the formula to make the perfect epidemic was there. He already had a base- the variola. He just needed to assemble the formula to make it more _powerful_. He had the scientific know-how, and the tools, he just needed to _figure it out_.

The Irken slammed his fist on the counter. He had helped perfect the infinite energy producing thingy and its _superior_ counter-part, the infinite energy absorbing thingy! Both of which had required major brain power to create, and yet, he was stumped by a stupid formula!

The invader growled again before rubbing his eyes. He should take a break. Getting angry about this would do nothing but create more problems, and most likely, flaws. Several times he had thought he had done it, had created the perfect formula, only to discover flaws in it.

Zim forced himself away from the planning table, and stretched. If he had ever felt gratitude, or really anything besides superiority and anger, towards the Dib for anything, it would be for destroying his horrendously annoying SiR unit, GiR. Sure, he might miss having an evil robot minion to do his _evil _bidding, but without GiR around, he found it surprisingly easier to focus on plans, and get important stuff done. He had no idea why he hadn't destroyed the thing sooner.

He thought about various things, distracting himself from his previous anger. Then he thought about Skool. He humoured himself for a few minutes, before realizing that he hadn't been to Skool for almost an entire Earth week!

Surely the humans had noticed~ It was a wonder that the Earth authorities hadn't been alerted to his base! Zim began to hyperventilate, pressing himself against the counter. He'd be brought to a human _dissection lab_, and the Dib would have a human field day with his inner-organs and blood candies! That stupid Dib with his enourmous big he-!

Wait. The Irken's system still felt like it was on hyperdrive, but his mind was clearing. The Dib was dead. The filthy stink-worm wouldn't be around to notice anyone, and so the Irken's disappearance would seem less suspicious without the Dib to point it out.

Zim's system levels were almost at a normal functioning level now. Still, he thought he should attempt to attend Skool more often, as to hopefully not arouse anymore suspicion than necessary. He wouldn't go today, though. No, not today. He had work to do. He'd go tomorrow. Yes, yes, tomorrow.

The almighty invader turned back to his work. He had calmed, and was now ready to take on the challenge again.

* * *

Tak didn't have much to pack. The drones, much to her dismay, had disposed of her SiR unit's parts, and had disposed of the escape pod. On a whole, Irkens don't usually have many personal possessions, and what they do possess is usually very easily stored in their PAKs, so beside a few things, Tak was already ready to leave.

Even though the engineers had just recently inspected and taken care of the Voot, Tak still looked it over and checked for faults. One couldn't be too careful with these things. She remembered when one Irken- or was it a Vortian?- had failed to inspect their vehicle, and had ended up suffocating in the vacuum of space. That wasn't something she wanted to do.

Tak walked around the vehicle a few times, pressing at parts, and bending over to inspect notches. Finally, after finding no faults on the outside, she opened the flexiglass dome shield, and climbed in. The Irken did a brief inspection of the controls before shutting the shield and inspecting that as well.

Satisfied with the perfection of the ship, she started it up. The pod raised up a few feet, hovering above the ground. Tak messed with a few of the controls, adjusting temperature, air pressure, oxygen levels, things such as that. After a few more minutes of messing around, she was ready to go. The Irken dialed her leaders on the small screen that was on the dash. She waited a few moments before the tall Irken leaders appeared on screen.

"My Tallest," Tak greeted.

The Tallest nodded, not replying. The purple Tallest leaned over and whispered something to the red one. The red Tallest gained an annoyed look.

"I will be leaving now," the female Irken continued. "I expect to arrive to Earth within a few hours."

Tallest Red touched his finger tips together. "Remember, you're taking over his mission. Something you might want to know, is that he's creating a deadly virus, that may also be deadly to Irkens. If you can somehow get a hold of that, all the better for your mission."

Tak nodded. "Yes, my Tallest." She saluted before ending the call.

* * *

Gaz sat in her room. It was dark. She was on her Game Slave 2, blasting away at zombies. It was a fairly new game, and it was pretty cool. It wasn't as cool as the original one, plot-wise, but the graphics _were _better.

The girl mashed the buttons expertly, shooting the virtual zombies. They cried out as they were killed. There was no time for thoughts or mistakes, only action and reaction. Zombies began to come faster and faster at her virtual persona, and Gaz shot faster and faster. Soon, zombies were surrounding her character, and a wave of zombies crashed over her.

A "GAME OVER" flashed onto the screen with "QUIT" and "START OVER" flashing under it. The girl moodily tossed her game onto the other side of her bed.

"Stupid zombies," she muttered darkly. As she sat there, her mind began wandering to two almost real-life zombies that she knew- Zim and Dib. _Zim killed Dib, what are you going to do about it?_

True, her brother had been annoying. He had been dumb, with his big head and stupid obsession over "paranormal" lore. But, he had been her brother, her own flesh and blood. Yes, she would miss him, but she would never admit it. Not to anyone. The girl thought about getting her revenge on Zim. How would she do it, though?

She could probably just march up to him and wring his neck. But, she wanted to make him _hurt_, badly. Her father had plenty of tools that could be used for malevolent purposes. Gaz glanced back at her game. What was Zim working on, anyways? Dib would usually freak out when Zim didn't come to Skool, because it usually meant the alien was up to something. Could he be up to something? She bet he was.

With Dib out of the way, he would have an easier time attempting to take over the Earth. Was he intelligent enough to do such a thing? Probably not. The Earth wasn't Gaz's concern anyways. She just wanted revenge on Zim. She wanted to make him suffer. When she got done with him, he would wish she'd have just killed him.

Gaz grinned grimly. She knew what she was doing.

* * *

The purple-eyed Irken watched out of the shield, bored. Trips were not her favorite thing. They were way, way down on her "things I like to do" list, and she often avoided long trips if she could. Tak was a person of "doing", not "waiting." Most of her life, she'd been more of the action type, restlessly working. Waiting was not working. It was sitting around and being useless. Nonetheless, she could handle it. There wasn't much she could not handle. After all, _invaders_ could handle most anything. She was not an exception.

Distant pin-points of light flew by her. Space was a fascinating thing that most did not stop to ponder. Even at warp drive, it still took a while to get from Point A to Point B. That is, if they were far away enough. For physics claim that nothing that nothing can travel faster than light, by human standards.

For Irkens, their technology had far surpassed human physics. They could travel faster than light, but to do so, they must use the "Warp Drive" feature in ships. If they were to use it outside of a ship, just by themselves, they would be crushed by the intense speed.

Irksns had most of the arm of their galaxy, the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, mapped out. Earth, however, was located in a different section of the galaxy. An arm, if you will. The Orion-Cygnus arm, where Earth was located, was many light years away from the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, so it would take a little more than a few Earth hours to reach at Warp Drive from Irk.

Tak slowly blinked, her antennae twitching. The tiny pin points of light rushing by her provided a calming effect. Those lights were distant stars and galaxies, that may not even be there anymore. Those lights were thousands upon thousands of light years away, which meant light had been traveling thousands upon thousands of years to reach that exact spot.

The Irken sighed. The Voot was silent. It was one of those newer versions that didn't produce any sound. Outside of the Voot, one would not hear anything. Not that it mattered in space. One could not hear anything in space, since the sound waves had nothing to bounce off of.

Tak slouched slightly in her seat. She debated whether or not to go into sleep mode, but in the end, she decided to stay awake. If something happened, she needed to be wide awake to deal with it.

_**A/N: Omfg I've had this chapter written since last April or so and I just got around to typing it up I'm so sorry oh my god. I can't promise quick updates, but I will try harder. I've been easing away from the Invader Zim fandom and focusing on different projects, but I promise I will finish this. Also sorry for the short chapter again hhh I will try to write longer chapters. Alsoo sorry for showing my inner space-nerd eheh.**_


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